


Heartache & Rain

by dogbreath333



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Hallucinations!, cousins!, ghosts!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 17:33:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17207843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogbreath333/pseuds/dogbreath333
Summary: Whenever Sasuke needs him, Shisui is never far away.(Shisui, of course, finds the whole thing hilarious. “You’re, what, a hundred and fifty? And I’m your first ghost? Seriously?”His dead cousin’s merriment makes Sasuke give up on shock and opt instead for irritation. “The first I’ll admit to,” he scowls.)





	Heartache & Rain

When Sasuke is four, he is possessed by the most all-consuming ennui. 

As is, summer is boring enough to be deadly. But when it rains? It pours. 

When he wakes in the morning, Mother is crying in the kitchen. She covers for it well, but not quickly enough. Sasuke is embarrassed, scared, and _ — _ oddly _ — _ more than a little guilty. Mother makes him breakfast, asks him how he slept, and smiles sadly at him while he drinks down a glass of juice. 

At the earliest opportunity, Sasuke creeps sheepishly away on quiet feet to the parlor, where he sits with his face pressed to the window, watching the deluge. There is nothing he can think of that he wants to do. The summer stretches mercilessly out in front of him. He thinks of Mother in the other room, and to his shame, Sasuke finds his breath hiccuping as he struggles not to cry. He flings himself back onto the floor petulantly. Then blinks and finds, crouched above him, a savior. 

“Shisui!”

“Heeeeeey, kid!” Shisui’s eyes crinkle just a little bit when he smiles. “What are you doing laying on the floor like a lump on such a beautiful summer day?”

Sasuke pouts. “It’s raining!”

“Are you kidding? That’s not rain. I’ve  _ seen _ rain. And anyway, it’s slowing down already. Why don’t you come to my house and hang out with me and Itachi?”

Sasuke shakes his head.

“Okaaaay,” Shisui hedges, switching tactics. “I mean, I guess Itachi was right, you’re way too cool for us now. He said, ‘no, don’t bother, Shisui. Sasuke will probably be busy laying on the parlor floor, and at any rate he’s much more world weary than all the other loser four-year-olds, and wouldn’t have any interest in hanging out with us and maybe even learning extremely dope and very advanced new jutsus. It’ll be a total waste of time.’ To which I responded, ‘Oh, are you sure, Itachi? Because I’m pretty sure Sasuke is already putting on his shoes’ _ —  _ aaaand, he’s leaving without me.”

Shisui congratulates himself on a job well done, hollers out a _ “see you later Auntie Mikoto!” _ as he slams the door, and takes off after Sasuke into the rain.

 

* * *

 

When Sasuke is sixteen, he is lost.

He and Karin have been trapped inside Madara’s genjutsu for _ —  _ it’s impossible to say. They are out of space, and time.

For both of their sakes, Karin sits silently and  _ thinks. _ She thinks, and listens, and senses. Analyzes every available piece of information in order to find Sasuke an upper hand.

She doesn’t speak, for fear of setting him off. He’s unstable on the best of days, but for an Uchiha to be trapped so impotently in another’s genjutsu… they need to get out of here.

Karin stretches her mind and her chakra, looking for any rough edges to their prison, but it feels infinite. There’s nothing. Until an unusual sound catches her ear. She’s been filtering out the sounds of Sasuke’s incessant, agitated prowling through the grey void. But now he’s standing stock still, facing away from her. She pauses; waits. There it is again _ — _ a startled huff of breath. His shoulders move with it, just slightly.

“Cousin,” Sasuke exhales sharply. He takes a halting step forward, reaching a hand out towards nothing. “Help me.”

Karin draws herself up, her whole body pulsing with dread.

“No!” Sasuke is starting to shake. “I’m  _ this _ way, Shisui.” He’s gasping out the words now. “Shisui. Don’t leave me, Shisui. No, don’t leave me!” 

Karin crawls cautiously towards Sasuke. He’s lashing out blindly now, choking on fear. “Don’t leave me!” he howls, again and again. Karin sits as close as she dares, but is careful not to touch him. “I’m not going anywhere,” she whispers. “Sasuke, I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

 

* * *

  
  


When Sasuke is eighty-five, he is going blind. 

Sakura had warned him against going so long without a physician’s care. But what would she know about it? The last time he’d seen her, she was still as fit as she was in her fifties. And Naruto? He’ll likely live to see a hundred, and then some. But the years have taken their toll on Sasuke. 

His sight is dimming, and no matter how much he tries to compensate with his other senses, the fact remains that his eyes have always been the heart of his power. It sets him off-kilter— his chakra thrums erratic electric pulses across his skin, with nothing directing it and nowhere for it to go. He walks with care to keep his body in check, and slowly, as he navigates a darkening world. Uchihas, he realizes, are not meant to live so long.

It’s difficult to say for certain what the life expectancy of an Uchiha in peacetime might be. For so long, peace has been an unknown quantity. 

A battlefield death would be much preferable to this…  _ diminishing _ , but those are hard to come by these days. So, he seeks out Sakura. His pride prevented him from doing so sooner, but now Sasuke is weakening. If old age is going to take him, it will not take him blind. 

It’s been years since he was last in Konohagakure, and the jonin on duty practically kneels in deference when Sasuke passes through the gates. It only serves to makes him more tired.

He finds Sakura waiting for him outside the hospital. Certainly she has better things to do on any given day than loiter outside the institution that she’s long since passed on to the next generation. And yet. “You’ve got some nerve darkening the door of  _ my _ hospital without even so much as a call ahead.”

Sasuke nearly smiles, but decides to save it. “Hope you haven’t been waiting long.”

“Oh, I have been!” Sakura rears up and takes the bait immediately. “I’ve been here an hour or more!” she scolds. “I sensed your chakra miles out, but good lord Uchiha have you gotten  _ slow.” _

He was right. The details are impossible to make out, but she’s standing strong and tall. “Yes, well, ten more years of life will do that to a man.” He does nothing to hide the bitterness in his voice. “We can’t all look like Senju Tsunade as octogenarians.” 

“Eleven years,” Sakura corrects mildly. “Eleven years since I’ve seen you last, not ten. It makes a difference, you know.” She peers at him knowingly. “And I don’t look a thing like Tsunade-sama.”

“If you say so,” Sasuke responds stiffly.

“Can you see me, Sasuke?”

“No,” he answers.

Without another word, Sakura takes his arm and leads him with measured steps to a quiet alcove on the hospital grounds. They find a bench amidst a sunny patch of green and sit facing each other. Sasuke lets the sun warm his bones. His eyes drift shut as he waits for Sakura’s steady hands on his face.

“Why did you let it wait so long?” She asks. There’s pain in her voice.

There’s nothing he can say to her. He just sinks into the warmth and lets her familiar chakra heal old wounds. 

“You’re too old to play these games, Sasuke,” she presses. 

Sasuke reaches up and pulls Sakura’s hands from his face. She’s already finished repairing years worth of damage. It had hardly taken a moment. 

“You’re right,” he says. “I’m too old.” But when he opens his eyes, the sight of her weathered face stops him neatly in his tracks.

“Go ahead, Uchiha,” Sakura allows, reading his expression. “Say it.”

He doesn’t fight the smile this time. “It would be impolite.”

She shakes her head. “As you can now see, I’m old as shit, and I’m really starting to look it. It’s not impolite to be truthful.” She begins moving her finger around his field of vision. “Look straight at me,” she instructs needlessly. He wasn’t planning on taking his eyes off her if he could help it. She’s aged after all, but now he can’t seem to find a single flaw in that.

When she finishes her examination, Sasuke rises to his feet.

“Just where do you think you’re going, young man?” Sakura teases.

“The forest.” Sasuke’s feet are already carrying him in that direction with an urgency he hasn’t felt in years.

“Don’t even think about slipping away!” Sakura shouts after him. “I told Naruto to give you some space, but I won’t be able to hold him off forever! And we’ll both raise hell if you’re not at my house for dinner tonight!”

“Thank you, Sakura,” Sasuke calls out over his shoulder, and her nagging echoes like music in his ears the whole way out into the woods. He decides to take his time with it, picking out paths both old and new, taking the forest in with fresh eyes. 

Just when he’s beginning to to settle into the familiarity of it _ — _ well, Sasuke has lived for a long time. He hasn’t been surprised in years. But he can truly say that he did not expect to find Shisui here. 

Shisui, of course, finds the whole thing hilarious. “You’re, what, a hundred and fifty? And I’m your first ghost? Seriously?”

His dead cousin’s merriment makes Sasuke give up on shock and opt instead for irritation. “The first I’ll admit to,” he scowls. 

Shisui throws his head back and cackles. “Alright, okay. I’ll take that as a compliment.” He settles himself on a fallen tree and looks up at Sasuke through the bloody places where eyes used to be. “What brings you to my wood, punk?”

“Watch your tone,” Sasuke warns. “Were you always so disrespectful to your elders?”

Shisui dances to his feet and flickers around Sasuke joyfully. “Wow, kiddo, be careful or you might actually start sounding like a crotchety old man.” Shisui stills and angles his head just so, indicating the path beyond. “You comin’ or what?”

There’s a decision to be made here, but Sasuke thinks of Naruto and Sakura and finds himself considering it only briefly. “Not at the moment,” Sasuke says carefully. “I’m meeting old friends for dinner.”

Shisui smiles, but there’s disappointment behind it. “Okay kid. Just don’t make us wait too long.”

“You’ll wait till I’m good and ready,” Sasuke grumbles. “And you can run and tell Itachi I said so, the impatient bastard.” 

Sasuke turns resolutely back towards the village, and dinner. 

 


End file.
